Press & Updates

News from NCTE

• The National Council of Teachers of English Announces Winners of Prestigious 2023 Literary Awards (November 29, 2023)
• NCTE and the National Council of Teachers of Mathematics (NCTM) announce joint conference on elementary literacy and mathematics. (November 16, 2023)
• NCTE Presidential Team addresses letter to membership regarding book access and censorship in advance of the 2023 NCTE Annual Convention (November 6, 2023)
• NCTE Vice President Tonya B. Perry quoted in K–12 Dive article, “Secondary Students Continue to Benefit from Earlier Literacy Tools.” (October 4, 2023)
• A bicameral resolution reintroduced by the US Congress and US Senate, led by Representative Raskin and Senator Schatz, recognized NCTE as best practice leaders on intellectual freedom in the midst of the uptick in book bans and censorship challenges ahead of Banned Books Week, October 1–7, 2023. (September 28, 2023)
• NCTE Announces Tom Hanks to Join Prestigious Keynote Speaker Roster at the 2023 NCTE Annual Convention. (September 19, 2023)
• NCTE cosigns the American Council of Learned Societies’ statement Fighting for an Ambitious Vision of Public Higher Education in America. The statement urges the West Virginia University Board of Governors to rethink currently proposed major cuts to several humanities-related programs. (September 15, 2023)
• National Council of Teachers of English announces 2023 Leadership Award recipients. Literacy educators recognized for their commitment and dedication to advancing literacy, the field of education, and NCTE. (September 8, 2023)
• NCTE Vice President Tonya B. Perry quoted in Associated Press article, “Children Hit Hardest by the Pandemic Are Now the Big Kids at School. Many Still Need Reading Help.” (September 1, 2023)
• NCTE members featured in WBEZ-Chicago article, “Illinois Is a Haven against Book Bans, but Advocates Say the Threat to Democracy Remains.” (August 31, 2023)
• NCTE member quoted in The Hill’s “PEN America Warns of a Growing Wave of ‘Educational Intimidation’ Bills.” (August 23, 2023)
• NCTE member quoted in Education Week article, “Is It Time to Retire ‘Harry Potter’-Themed Classrooms and Libraries?” (August 21, 2023)
• NCTE member quoted in The Hill article, “How New Tactics Have Driven a Spike in Book Ban Attempts.” (July 9, 2023)
• Antero Garcia elected as Vice President of the National Council of Teachers of English. Garcia will take office during NCTE’s Annual Convention in November 2023. (June 9, 2023)
• NCTE member quoted in Lead Stories article, “Fact Check: Georgia High School Did NOT Teach Students to Create Real ‘Cannibalism’ Business Plan — It Was a Lesson in Satire for English Class.” (April 28, 2023)
• NCTE member quoted in WFAE-Charlotte’s “A New Authors Alliance Brings Diverse and Bilingual Children’s Books to Charlotte Schools.” (April 6, 2023)
• NCTE endorses the Pay Teachers Act introduced by US Senator and chair of the Senate Health, Education, Labor, and Pensions Committee Bernie Sanders. The bill ensures that all public school teachers earn a livable and competitive wage that is at least $60,000 a year and increases over the course of their career. (March 9, 2023)
• NCTE cosigns the American Historical Association’s Statement Opposing Florida House Bill 999. The statement expresses horror at the bill’s threats on academic freedom in higher education and illustrates the dangers of politically appointed board members setting educational restrictions. (March 3, 2023)
• NCTE cosigns the American Council of Learned Societies’ statement, The Effort to Undermine Academic Freedom in Florida House Bill 999. The statement condemns the bill for attacking academic freedom by banning coursework that advances diversity and equity issues and risks accreditation losses in Florida’s public colleges and universities. (March 3, 2023)
• NCTE’s African American Read-In featured, members quoted in Word In Black, “This Program Encourages Students to Read Black Authors.” (February 28, 2023)
• NCTE nonfiction position statement featured, authors quoted, and Executive Director Emily Kirkpatrick quoted in the Science Library Journal’s A Fuse 8 Production blog, “‘A game changer!’ Dive Into the NCTE’s Position Statement on the Role of Nonfiction Literature.” (February 16, 2023)
• NCTE cosigns the American Council of Learned Societies’ Statement In Support of Academic Freedom and New College of Florida. The statement supports sustaining academic freedom in higher education. (February 14, 2023)
• NCTE nonfiction position statement featured and authors quoted in School Library Journal article, “New NCTE Policy Pushes the Power and Purpose of Nonfiction.” (February 10, 2023)
• NCTE announces results of the 2022 Recognizing Excellence in Art and Literary Magazines (REALM) contest (January 30, 2023)
• NCTE member quoted in Wall Street Journal’s “Professors Turn to ChatGPT to Teach Students a Lesson.” (January 25, 2023)
• NCTE nonfiction position statement featured, authors and Executive Director Emily Kirkpatrick quoted in Publisher’s Weekly article, “National Council of Teachers of English Advocates for K–12 Nonfiction.” (January 24, 2023)
• NCTE nonfiction position statement featured in Washington Post’s Book Club newsletter. (January 20, 2023)
• NCTE nonfiction position statement featured and authors quoted in Education Week article, “English Teachers Should Teach More Nonfiction, National Group Says. Here’s How.” (January 19, 2023)
• NCTE releases new Position Statement on the Role of Nonfiction Literature (K–12) (January 19, 2023)
• NCTE members quoted in “The Future of the High School Essay: We Talk to 4 Teachers, 2 Experts and 1 AI Chatbot.” (December 19, 2022)
• NCTE and the National Humanities Alliance announce the 2022 Jefferson Lecture essay contest winner and runners-up. (December 19, 2022)
• NCTE signs onto letter to the Federal Communications Commission regarding their National Broadband Maps, which mis-categorizes multi-dwellings units and community anchor institutions, including schools and libraries. (December 12, 2022)
• The National Council of Teachers of English Announces Winners of Prestigious 2023 Literary Awards (November 21, 2022)
• English concentrator William Lohier ’23 was awarded first place and a $4,000 prize by the National Council of Teachers of English (NCTE) in its national writing contest, “Celebrating Black Writers: Voices Calling for Activism and Social Justice.” (November 4, 2022)
• A bicameral resolution issued by the US Congress and US Senate, led by Chairman Raskin and Senator Schatz recognized NCTE as best practice leader on intellectual freedom and condemned the uptick in book bans and education-targeted gag orders. (September 22, 2022)
• “Today’s Book Bans Might Be More Dangerous than Those from the Past. The Right’s Purge Is Targeting Books Children Choose to Read, not Works They Are Assigned,” by Washington Post. (September 12, 2022)
• “In 2022, a New Urgency for Banned Books Week,” by Publishers Weekly. (September 9, 2022)
• Book challenges, restrictions, and outright bans on materials in K-12 classrooms and school libraries are popping up more and more across the country these days. NCTE’s Book Rationale Database featured in EducationWeek article. (September 1, 2022)
• National Council of Teachers of English Announces 2022 Award Recipients. Literacy educators recognized for their commitment and dedication to advancing literacy, the field of education, or NCTE. (September 1, 2022)
• NCTE’s Executive Director Emily Kirkpatrick was quoted in this piece by Kiara Alfonseca and ABC News on how censorship-related laws are influencing teachers’ decisions to stay in the classroom:  “We are seeing that teachers are personally targeted…It’s leading towards an extinguishing of the passion of why teachers got into the profession in the first place.” (August 31, 2022). You can learn more about NCTE’s efforts on censorship by visiting the NCTE’s Intellectual Freedom Center or to report censorship.
• Everyone is a writer, according to the National Council of Teachers of English. And that’s a good thing, given that being able to write is a vital skill across many professions. Read the article on “How to Master Needed College Writing Skills” By U.S. News. (June 18, 2022)
• Shelly C. Lowe, Chair of the National Endowment for the Humanities to Address Keynote at NCTE Summer Event for English Teachers. (June 27, 2022)
• George M. Johnson Named Honorary Chair of Banned Books Week (June 16, 2022)
• Tonya B. Perry has been elected as the incoming Vice President of the National Council of Teachers of English (NCTE). Perry has over 20 years of teaching experience and is a tireless advocate for students and educators who are often denied a voice. (June 15, 2022)
• NCTE opposes recent action to block the sales of books in Virginia. Please read the Virginia Legal Action Threatens the Freedom to Read coalition statement, supported by leading literacy advocates. This action would profoundly limit the availability of books in the Commonwealth of Virginia and this form of censorship cannot be tolerated under the First Amendment. (May 18, 2022)
• NCTE announced today it has been recognized by ASAE as the Overall Excellence Gold Circle Award out of nearly 200 submissions. (May 18, 2022)
• NCTE Shares Support for the RAISE Act: New federal legislation introduced will boost teacher compensation and professional support (May 5, 2022)
• The 2021 NCTE Annual Convention, themed “Equity, Justice, and Antiracist Teaching,” broke new ground last November. The most recent honor for this event is a Gold Stevie® Award in the Conferences & Meetings – Educational Event category. (April 22, 2022)
• NCTE announced today it has been recognized by ASAE with a 2022 Gold Circle Award in the Convention/Meetings Marketing Campaign category for 2021 NCTE Annual Convention. (April 21, 2022)
• “Teachers to Culture Warriors: Stop Treating Us as Enemies”: NCTE’s Freedom to Teach Statement published in the Washington Post. (March 22, 2022)
• NCTE coauthors Freedom to Teach Statement. School districts, the most active battlefield in the American culture wars today, are facing an unprecedented number of calls to remove books from schools and libraries, false claims about “obscenity” invading classrooms, the elimination of teaching about evolution and climate change, challenges to the need for making sense of and critiquing our world in mathematics classrooms, and legislation redlining teaching about racism in American history. (February 15, 2022)
• The Center for Black Literature (CBL) at Medgar Evers College, in partnership with the National Council of Teachers of English (NCTE) and the University of Pittsburgh School of Education, announces partnership for Celebrating Black Writers: Voices Calling for Activism and Social Justice, a writing award for secondary and college students. (February 28, 2022)
• NCTE signs American Historical Association’s statement “condemn[ing] in the strongest possible terms Russia’s recent invasion of Ukraine” and Russian President Vladimir Putin’s abuse of history as justification for the attack. (February 28, 2022)
• NCTE releases a statement in Solidarity with Teachers, with over 30 Conferences, Associations, Assemblies, and Affiliate groups signing on in support. (February 22, 2022)
• NCTE signs on to American Historical Association’s statement historicizing and condemning the numerous bomb threats received by at least 17 Historically Black Colleges and Universities in early 2022. (February 22, 2022)
• NCTE is proud to be the official literacy partner of Random House’s virtual event to celebrate the paperback launch of Educated in conversation with Natalie Portman and Tara Westover. (February 8, 2022)
• NCTE Releases a statement on the Doublespeak Award and Anti-Censorship Efforts (February 7, 2022)